Caldwell enjoying life as a Raven

Vic Tafur

Published 10:08 pm, Friday, January 25, 2013

The NFL struck out big time this month, when eight coaching vacancies and five general manager vacancies were all filled by white men. Jim Caldwell, who took the Indianapolis Colts to the Super Bowl as head coach in February 2010 and is now the Baltimore Ravens' offensive coordinator, didn't get even one interview.

But the laid-back Caldwell is in a good place to take the whiff as one cool, refreshing breeze. He is going to the Super Bowl with the Ravens, who have been hot since he took over the play-calling in Week 15.

"Is there any lament? No. None whatsoever," Caldwell said Friday. "I would certainly rather be right where I am, right now, with you asking me these questions. This doesn't happen very often in your career. I am thankful.

"The other things, they'll take care of themselves somewhere down the road."

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Caldwell is calling plays for the first time in his career, and things have gone better than coach John Harbaugh could have imagined when he fired offensive coordinator Cam Cameron on Dec. 10 and replaced him with Caldwell.

"It was an important move," Harbaugh said.

Maybe not as bold as his brother, Jim, benching Alex Smith and going with untested Colin Kaepernick in San Francisco, but still a pretty big roll of the dice.

The Ravens have averaged 427 yards and 30 points in the playoffs, with Joe Flacco throwing for eight touchdowns and no interceptions. (It's 10 touchdowns and no interceptions in the past five games overall.) Caldwell has encouraged Flacco to take more chances deep downfield, while moving him in and out of the pocket more. Caldwell has also increased the workload for running backs Ray Rice and Bernard Pierce. There were times early this season when it seemed as though Cameron had forgotten about Rice.

The offense's yards per game went from 344 under Cameron to 417 under Caldwell.

"What coach Caldwell has done is keep the offense simple and basic," Rice said. "He put the game in Joe Flacco's hands, and Joe has done a great job."

Caldwell, who was the team's quarterbacks coach the first 14 weeks, has not tried to change too much. He has drawn a lot on his experiences with Peyton Manning in Indianapolis, where he won a Super Bowl ring as quarterbacks coach in 2007 before taking the Colts to the Super Bowl after the 2009 season.

But Manning was hurt with a neck injury and Caldwell was fired after the Colts went 2-14 in 2011. The Ravens snapped him up pretty quickly.

"He's been around," Harbaugh said. "He's coached both sides of the ball. He's been a head coach. He's done it all. But he's mainly a really good guy. ¦ He's genuine. He doesn't mince words ¦ and the guys appreciate that." Sounds like a pretty good head coaching candidate.

The problem, according to Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome, is that Caldwell is too good. That's what the spin was at this week's Senior Bowl.

Seriously.

"I got a chance to be around a lot of the GMs," Newsome said. "I had a couple of GMs tell me, `If it weren't for your guys (having) success in the playoffs and ¦ continuing to play and Jim only getting the job, then he would have been someone that we would have interviewed.'"

Newsome expects Caldwell, 58, to get interviews and maybe another head coaching job after next season.

It would be nice if the Rooney Rule, which stipulates that at least one minority candidate be interviewed for every head coaching and general manager opening, was tweaked. Right now, many teams get around it by bringing in people that they're not seriously considering, and many teams have interviewed minority "candidates" after they have already made, but not announced, their choice.

One change that looks as if it is coming is that the Rooney Rule will soon include coordinators as well. It would also be nice if there were more opportunities and forums for the league's owners to meet a lot of the younger minority assistant coaches in the NFL.

Caldwell has faith.

"(The Rooney Rule) is going to be revisited," Caldwell said. "There have been a lot of very intelligent men that have looked at it and said, `Hey, let's look at this thing and talk about it in depth.' So, I think that's going to happen."

Caldwell would love another shot at head coaching but said, "I don't want to coach until I am 85."